Improvement in gas-heaters



UNITED STATES PATENT FFICE.

DAVID GREENE HASKINS, OF CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS.

IMPROVEMENT IN GAS-HEATERS.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 121,170, dated November 21, 1871 i antedatcd November 6, 1871.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, DAVE) GREENE HAsxiNs, of Cambridge, county of Middlesex and State of Massachusetts, have invented certain Improvements in Gas-Burners Adapted to Heating Purposes, of which the following is a specification:

My invention consists in constructing a heating gas-burner in such a manner as to combine two important functions of a perfect heatingburner, viz., first, to prevent gas being ignited before it is mixed with air; and second, to be able to burn either a large or small amount of gas at pleasure.

To enable others skilled in the art to make and use my invention, I will fully describe the same, referring for illustration to the accompanying drawing, in which- Figure lis a side elevation of my invention, showing a side section of the chimney over the cone. Fig. 2 is a sectional elevation of the same, showing an end section of the chimney over the cone. Fig. 3 is also a section, showing the tube for the ascension of heated air. Fig. 4 represents the socket. Fig. 5 represents the frustum.

A represents a socket, in which is arranged the supply gas-jet or burner B. Around the burner, and tapering upward, with its opening immediately over the burner, is a perforated frustum, C, of any desired height, the purpose of which is to concentrate the current of cold air entering at the bottom of the cylinder in such a manner as to secure, rst, its commingling with the gas ascending from the gas-jet within it 5 and, second, especially to prevent the upper and outer casing of the cylinder and cone from becoming overheated. The air passes in part up through this frustum and out of its mouth at the same time, commingling with the gas as it flows from the gas-jet or burner. The mixed air and gas then pass in to the perforated cylinder I), surmountin g which is the perforated conical top F. This conical top may be incased by an outside chimney, N, made either of metal or baked clay, and which may or may not be perforated. When perforated the flame spreads and covers a much larger space than when it is not perforated. In this latter form the ame becomes concentrated at the mouth of the outer chimney, said mouth being the only opening in the upper outside chimney for the escape of the mixed air and gas, rendering the heat much more intense. This outside casing, cap, or chimney also protects the in. ner cone from the oxidation and wear occasioned by the combustion.

The conical or upper part of the cylinder E may be perforated or made of incised baked clay, that material answering better for the absorption and radiation of heat.

The heating-burner may be made on the Argand principlei. e., with a small tube, S, for air entering either at the bottom of the cylinder or at the side a, Fig. 3, and emerging at `the apex of the cone at b, Fig. 3.

The practical objection to the Bunsen burner is this, namely, that if in igniting the iiow of gas the cock happens not to be sufficiently open, and consequently the ascending stream of gas falls short of the proportion necessary to render the current issuing from the top of the tube combustible, then the flame of the taper will ignite only the narrow gasstream as it rises through the tube, and will follow it down the tube to the mouth of the jet, from which the gas will continue to burn with a yellow smoking flame. This is called the hopping down 7 of the gas.

To meet this objection recourse has been very generally had to the use of a close-fitting cover, made of wire-gauze or perforated metal, over the top of the tube, which, on the well-understood principle of the Davy safety-lamp, is perfectly effectual in preventing a anie applied over it from igniting the gas in the tube below.

But another and very serious difficulty occurs in burners thus covered with wire-gauze or perforated metal. Though the gas within the tube cannot be ignited through the wire-gauze or perforated-metal covering on the top of the tube, still, on account of the resistance made by the covering to the free escape of gas .through the tube, it is in danger of being ignited by being crowded backward and outward through the ap* ertures for the admission `of air at the bottom of the tube, or by the accidental proximity of a iiame to these apertures. Nor is it a complete remedy for this difficulty to protect these apertures, like the top of the tube, with wire-gauze or perforated metal, for these present so great an impediment to the admission of air into the tube that it is impossible to obtain a blue heating iiame except less gas is let on than is usually needful for the ends to which heating-burners are applied, while there is next to no protection against the danger of the gas igniting before it has been mixed with air. The great desideratum in a burner of this sort, especially in stoves designed for heating rooms, is to be able to burn a large 0r a small amount of gas at pleasure.

To meet both these conditions of a perfect heating-burner, I construct a chamber of sufficient size, and of any desired form, Which is entirely surrounded by a casing made of finely-perforated metal, or partly of finely-perforated metal and partly of finely-perforated or incised stone or baked clay, the perforations, reticulations, or incisions being all of such fineness as to render it impracticable for the gas Within the chamber to be ignited through them by a ilame outside, though sufficiently large to admit of air being drawn through them by the current created by the ascending gas Within. Into this chamber the gas is admitted by a tightly-fitted pipe, and the gas Which is admitted by this pipe has no other means of escape than through the finely-perforated, reticulated, or incised surroundings of the chamber.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

1. The outside cap or chimney N, flattened at the mouth, with perforated or closed sides, when used as and for the purpose specified.

2. The perforated metal casing or cylinder D, in combination with a perforated-metal or incised baked-clay cap E or their equivalents, and outside perforated or closed chimney N, substantially as and for the purpose set forth.

3. The tube S, when used in combination with the cylinder D, cap E, and outside chimney N, as and for the purpose described.

4. rllhe combination of the apertured sockets A, the perforated frustum C, the cylinder D, the cap E, and outer chimney N, substantially as de scribed.

To the above I have signed my name this 26th day of September, 1870.

DAVID GRREENE HASKINS.

N. AUsrrN PARKS. (65) 

